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International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry talks to the media at the start house of the sliding center at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Fatima Shbair\/AP<\/p>\n
Italian President Sergio Mattarella, foreground left, IOC President Kirsty Coventry and Vice President JD Vance pose for a group photo at the Heads of states dinner, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Luca Bruno\/AP<\/p>\n
IOC President Kirsty Coventry gestures at a reallocation medals ceremony at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Anterselva, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Mosa’ab Elshamy\/AP<\/p>\n
IOC President Kirsty Coventry, left, and former IOC president Thomas Bach attend an IOC session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026.<\/p>\n
Luca Bruno\/AP<\/p>\n
MILAN (AP) \u2014 The first female president in the International Olympic Committee\u2019s 132 years got a proper stress test in the first games of her history-making leadership.<\/p>\n
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Kirsty Coventry was widely seen as having good overall success at the Milan Cortina Winter Games that also gave a taste of challenges set to be tougher running into the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAn incredible games, and an incredible experience for me as my first in this role,\u201d she told IOC colleagues Sunday.<\/p>\n
Coventry insisted in Milan pre-games that \u201cour game is sport,\u201d yet playing politics was inevitable.<\/p>\n
She started the Winter Games building \u201cvery good chemistry\u201d with U.S. Vice President JD Vance \u2014 who was booed at the opening ceremony \u2014 and had seemed likely to close it with U.S. President Donald Trump, who she has not yet met. He did not travel as many expected for Sunday’s men\u2019s ice hockey final that the U.S. won.<\/p>\n
In between, political pressure on Coventry was intense during the days-long drama of the Ukraine skeleton racer\u2019s helmet memorializing athletes and coaches killed in the Russian military invasion.<\/p>\n
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Coventry\u2019s face-to-face, trackside meeting with Vladyslav Heraskevych early Feb. 12 that failed to avert his disqualification has helped define her leadership style.<\/p>\n
Her tears in a subsequent meeting with international media is a powerful image of her presidency \u2014 though Heraskevych himself wasn’t impressed<\/a>.<\/p>\n The next day, at a news conference in Milan, a list was detailed to Coventry of IOC issues with its own finances, plus future Olympic hosts, their officials and governments.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a job only a woman could do,\u201d she said with relish, \u201cand I\u2019m looking forward to continuing to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The athletes\u2019 president<\/p>\n The Ukrainian political strategy had been \u201ca baptism of fire\u201d for the new president, the former IOC marketing director Michael Payne told The Associated Press on Sunday.<\/p>\n Coventry going directly to engage Heraskevych in sports diplomacy was a shift from her predecessors Thomas Bach and Jacques Rogge, who also were Olympic athletes.<\/p>\n At age 42, having swum for Zimbabwe as recently as the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Coventry is just 13 months older than a huge star at these games, Lindsey Vonn.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw at these games her values and her humanity,\u201d IOC member Tricia Smith, a silver medalist in rowing for Canada at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, told The Associated Press. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s exceptionally positive for the Olympic Movement as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The 72-year-old Bach sat next to Coventry again Sunday at the IOC\u2019s meeting: He in suit and tie, she in smart casual knitwear that is becoming her signature look.<\/p>\n The generational change is clear for the Olympics, which wants and needs to stay relevant with athletes who are increasingly their own tech-savvy brands.<\/p>\n The business president<\/p>\n After seven years as sports minister in the government of Zimbabwe, Coventry was no management rookie.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n One of her four IOC vice presidents, Pierre-Olivier Beckers, said in Milan that people who had thought she was too young to lead were wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cI think she\u2019s maturing at an incredible pace,\u201d Beckers told reporters, adding she was \u201ca joy for people like me to work with. Her ability to surround herself, to listen to people, all advisors, to make up her mind quickly, is just astonishing.\u201d<\/p>\n Making headlines at a news conference<\/p>\n